What a cover shot to finish the year on.

The new issue of Dirt is out any day now, subscribers might already have their copy, and it have one of my favourite Dirt covers ever. There’s no fancy photoshop going on here, it is all done with lights and skill. I was just sent a random email from an Austrian photographer called Stefan Voitl. He’d never sent anything in to Dirt before, and I had never heard of him. Here’s what he said in that email, “My name is Stefan Voitl. I’m a young photographer based in Austria and i race myself downhill more than 7 years. I am shooting a lot of snowboarding, but also many other mountain sports. This time i was shooting with my close friend Markus Pekoll. Who is current Austrian national champion, IXS european cup champion and he also had a lot of really good worldcup rankings. The reason why i’m writing you this mail is, because i showed the photo to some friends and the first thing they were saying was… this has to be cover of an international mountainbike magazine! My question now… Are you interested in the picture as a cover?” The answer was of course YES.

He went on, “The shot was taken behind Markus Pekoll’s house at his secret track. It is lighted with one big flash (red colour foil) from the back, one flash (green colour foil) is behind the tree stump and two neutral flashes are directed at Markus.”

So Merry Christmas everyone, thanks for being with us over the last 12 months.

Come on…it’s Christmas in Hollis by RUN DMC…it has to be.

Outta here.

Mike and the Dirt crew.